KATHMANDU, Nepal–Every six foreign tourists create one job in Nepal, a new survey carried out by the Tourism Ministry on Thursday revealed, thanks to the whooping number of tourist’s arrival in the Himalayan nation.
Tourism Employment Survey 2014, the first ever survey of the tourism industry carried out in the country showed that 797,616 tourist arrivals in Nepal led to jobs for 138,148 persons.
“The proportion of tourist visits and job opportunity created suggests that one job was generated from every six foreign tourist visits over a year’s period,” the survey reads.
The trekking sector was the largest employer in the tourism industry followed by tourist standard hotels, travel agencies, star hotels and international airlines.
The survey has it that 1,636 trekking agencies provided 50,004 jobs, 625 tourist standard hotels provided jobs to 26,808 people, 2,112 travel agencies offered job opportunity to 25,238 people and 105 star-rated hotels employed 13,459 persons.
The survey conducted between May and June, was based on 192 tourism establishments in 10 districts.
However, it is lower than the estimate of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) which states that the entry of one tourist into a particular country provides employment to 12 people.
The figure revealed by the survey is also lower than the employment figure estimated by the Economic Survey 2013 which states that the tourism industry has generated 178,000 direct jobs.
Stakeholder said the survey is just linked with total arrivals and their outcome in the industry, thus it still could not gave a real figure of jobs created by the industry.
The survey said that more than half (58 percent) of all the employees in the tourism industry were indigenous 33 percent were Brahmin/Kshetri, 5 percent were Dalit and 3 percent were Tarai/Madhesi. Around 19 percent of the employees were highly skilled.
According to the survey, women’s engagement in the tourism industry was nominal. Around 20 percent of the employees were female while 78 percent had secondary or a higher level of education. Almost 47 percent had completed intermediate level of education.
The survey also found 24 percent employees as seasonal worker while 76 percent regular ones and most of the employees in the industry were young.
Regarding salary, 37 percent of the workers earned Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 per month while another 37 percent made Rs 20,000 per month.
Similarly, 226 home-stay establishments employed 2,738 people, 49 rafting companies employed 735 people and 60 paragliding and ultra-light companies employed 440 persons.
Data was collected from 192 tourism establishments located in various districts.